Freshman Checklist

for College Readiness

FALL
Plan For The Year Ahead
• Meet with your counselor to discuss your college plans and course schedule and endorsements.
• Review your schedule to make sure you are enrolled in challenging and rigorous classes. A wide variety of advanced courses
are available to you including AP, Dual Credit, Dual Enrollment, etc. Also, colleges prefer at least three years of a foreign lan-
guage and four years of core classes.
• Start thinking about your career goals and talk to people in that field – ask lots of questions!
• Get involved in extracurricular activities and begin to make a resume of your activities. This will be of great use for you when
starting to apply for college admissions as well as jobs.
• Attend college fairs and ask lots of questions about admissions, majors, financial aid, programs, etc.
• WORK HARD on your academics, grade point average, homework and semester exams.
• Develop good work habits for homework and time management skills.

Take The Psat 9Th

• Take the PSAT 9th and Do Your Best. The PSAT will be administered in October. Your district will pay for you to
take it and there is no need to pre-register. Be ready to do your best as the PSAT scores is not only a predictor of
how well you will do on the actual SAT but also it is used as a measure of College Readiness!

SPRING
Prepare For Tests
• Do your very best on your End-Of-Course exams. Talk to your counselor if you have questions.
• Prepare for your semester exams and finish strong!

Signing Up For Courses For Next Fall

• Talk to your counselor and teachers about taking AP, Dual Credit or Dual Enrollment, or Articulated courses next fall so that you
can get college credit while in high school.
• Check your progress towards graduation; that you are earning the needed credits and Grade Point Average.
• Revise and update your 4 Year Plan and make sure you are completing needed classes to earn your endorsement.

Learn About Colleges

• Visit colleges online and compare programs, cost of attendance and even take a virtual tour at
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org and through https://www.ownyourownfuture.com
• Tour colleges during Spring break or in the summer (colleges have special events for high school students).

Stay Focused
• Make sure to be doing your best in all classes, keep in mind that the GPA (which drives your rank) that you will use to apply for
college during the Summer/Fall of your senior year is calculated from ALL coursework taken from 9th-11th grade.
 Freshman Checklist for College Readiness continued

Explore Summer Opportunities

• Look for summer opportunities to put on your resume; internships, jobs or classes taken in the summer.
• Keep track of your volunteer activities and enrichment programs that you participate in.
• Talk to your counselor about taking advanced courses; like AP, Dual Credit and/or Dual Enrollment in the spring of your sopho-
more year or be ready to take additional advanced courses for the new school year.
• Start a summer reading list and visit college campuses (many colleges have special events during the summer)

Academic Resources
How To Start Making Your College Dream A Reality: http://www.ownyourfuture.com
What’s Avid? https://www.avid.org/what-avid-is
Sat Customized Test Prep: www.khanacademy.org
Act Personalized Practice: www.academy.act.org
TSI Test Prep through ACCUPLACER & Download the App as well: https://accuplacer.collegeboard.org/student/practice and
through the ACC Website: http://sites.austincc.edu/tsiprep/

College Resources
Explore And Compare College Options: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search
Naviance College Match: www.student.naviance.com
Compare Colleges: https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
Get Financial Aid Guidance: https://StudentAid.gov

Career Resources
Where To Learn About Careers? https://roadtripnation.com
Explore Careers: Naviance Student App (www.student.naviance.com)
Other Career Exploration Tools: http://launchmycareertx.org
*Texas Workforce Commission (TWC): https://lmci.state.tx.us/explore/TSC/k12.asp
Careers In The Military: https://www.careersinthemilitary.com/
ASVAB Test: Contact a Recruiter http://www.todaysmilitary.com/

College Fairs
National Hispanic College Fair: https://collegefair.info/hs-registration/##registration
NACAC Austin National College Fair: https://www.nacacfairs.org/attend-a-college-fair/